Valorization of Seeds from Some Field Border Flowering Seeds

Flowering strips are now being increasingly cultivated along the fields to improve biodiversity. However after serving for the desired function, these plants have no utilization besides animal feed. It could be really interesting to valorize some commonly grown plant in these strips to render food or health promoting compounds.
With this objective in mind the seeds of Achillea millefolium, Anthriscus sylvestris and Prunella vulgaris were investigated for lipids, proteins and phenolic content. Further the lipids were analyzed for fatty acid profile using gas chromatography and the phenolic compounds in the methanolic extract of defatted seeds were identified using HPLC-DAD. The antiradical activity of the methanolic extracts obtained from defatted seeds was investigated using DPPH and ABTS assays. The anti-inflammatory potential of these seed extracts was evaluated on the reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by stimulated neutrophils and on the specific activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a pro-oxidant enzyme marker of inflammation.
Seeds from all three plants were analyzed with interesting levels of lipids, proteins and phenolic content. Linoleic acid, oleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid were the major fatty acids analyzed in A. millefolium, A. sylvestris and P. vulgaris respectively. On the other hand different phenolic acid formed the major phenolic constituents. Seed extracts displayed high ABTS and DPPH radical-scavenging activities in a dose dependent manner. Also a strong dose dependent anti-inflammatory activity of all three extracts was observed against ROS production by neutrophils and MPO activity. Results indicate that these seed show a great potential to render lipids which could be utilized as human food, further the defatted seeds could be directly included in human diet due to interesting levels of proteins and anti-inflammation ability.